Improvement in water-wheels



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE..

w. L. GREGORY, or AMsTERDAM, NEw YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN WATER-WH EELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,383, dated May 5, 1863; antedated August 25, 1862.

of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a side sectional view of my invention, taken in the line x x, Fig. 2 Fig. 2, a plan or top view of the same, the frame being bisected horizontally, as indicated by the line y y, Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both views.

Thisinvention relates to an improved waterwheel of that class which are operated by the force of a current orstream, and are commonly termed current-wheels.77

The invention consists in the employment or use of a series of buckets attached to vertical shafts provided at their upper ends with gears connected together and to a stationary gear by chains, or equivalents, substantially as hereinafter described, whereby the buckets, as the wheel rotates, are made to present a greater or less area to the action of the stream, according to the power required, and

the buckets also rendered capable of being adjusted manually when it is desired to stop the wheel, so as to be in a state of equipoise and incapable of being acted upon by the current.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully un'lerstand and construct my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

A A represent two circular disks, which are attached to a vertical shalt, B, at a snitable distaneeapart; and C C CfC are buckets, which are placed vertically between the disks A A, at equal distances apart. These buckets have their lower journals, c, stepped in the lower disk, A, but the upperjournals, b, are tted in radial slots c made in the upper disk. On the upper end of each upper journal, b, there is a pinion, d; and D is a chain, which passes around the four pinions, the teeth of which work through the links of the chain.

On the upper journal, b, of the bucket C,

and above its pinion d, there is a toothed wheel, e, which is larger in diameter than the pinion d, below it. The wheel e has a chain, f, passing around it, through the links of which the teeth of the wheel pass, and said chainf also passes around a pinion, g, on the lower end of a hollow shaft, h, on the upper part of the shaft B. This hollow shaft h has a lever, i, attached to its upper end, by which lever the shaft It may be kept stationary or turned manually when desired.

The operation is as follows: Suppose, for

instance, the wheel to be immersed in a stream the current of which moves in a direction indicated by the arrows in Fig. 2. The buckets 'as they reach the points Occupied by G present their whole area to the current, and they gradually change from such a position to an edgewise position until they reach the point occupied by buckets C. From this point they gradually turn to the position shown by bucket (l. This turning or movement of the buckets is due to the pinions d, chain D, wheel e, chain f, and pinion g, the latter being stationary, or not revolving. When the buckets C C C 0^" are turned in the positions specified, as the wheel rotates, its maximum power is obtained, the buckets moving ed gewisc against the current.

By turning the hollow shaft h, however, the position of the buckets relatively with the current may be changed, and they may be so adI justed as to present a greater or less area to the action of the stream, or so as to prevent the latter rotating the wheel at all.

I do not confine myself to the pinions d, chains D f, wheel e, and pinion g, for gearing alone may be substituted therefor, the latter operating in substantially the same way as the former.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination and arrangement of the buckets C C C" C", pinions g d, chains Df, and wheel e, as herein shown and described.

W. L. GREGORY.

Vitnesses:

GARDNER LANDON, Jr., E. T. LANDON. 

